An online journal by Angie Lomas.

Update on Brian’s health

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated everyone on Brian’s health. Brian had his last G.N. chemo treatment on Thanksgiving morning and the following “off” week marked the end of his second cycle of this treatment. Yesterday, Brian went to the doctor for his routine labs and they were able to schedule his next PET scan for next Tuesday. This means that we will have a follow-up appointment on Thursday to see if this chemo has done anything to beat down the Hodgkin’s.

We also have a follow-up appointment with an Integrative Medicine (IM) doctor at KU on Tuesday. I’m not sure if I’ve blogged about this or not, but about 6 weeks ago we were able to meet with a more “holistic” doctor (Integrative Medicine) about Brian’s case. It wasn’t exactly what we expected, but it was still really good. We went into the appointment thinking that we would be told to eat a lot of veggies, cut back sugars, and all of the other things you hear about holistic medicine, but this is not what we talked about at all. We talked primarily about the processes that the body takes to reject toxins, the way the body utilizes the energy from the foods that are eaten, and making sure that all of those systems are working properly. The thinking behind this is that if all of the other “systems” are working properly, it can “only help” the treatments that we’re currently doing to fight the Hodgkin’s. It will also hopefully help with energy levels, getting rid of the chemo “toxins” as well as hopefully help process and reject cancer cells.

At our last appointment with the IM doctor, Brian was given a list of tests to do in order to better track how his body was doing with these certain processes and systems in the body. Brian has done all of the tests and we will review the results at this next appointment and hopefully find some areas in which we can improve or manipulate those processes in order to function as good as possible. This may require taking supplements to assist these systems to work properly. There is also a treatment option available through the IM department where a patient can get weekly high-dose Vitamin C infusions (through IV) in hopes that it boosts the immune system to battle off cancer.

Of course, there is always a catch. None of these IM appointments, tests or treatments are covered by insurance because they are not “standard treatments.” SOOOO…we are slowing thinking through our options and what may be the best for us to do. Pray for wisdom and discernment…since sometimes the “best” thing to do is not always the most logical, inexpensive, or easy thing to do. Definitely a faith builder.

Brian is feeling pretty good..the side effects from chemo are better right now, since he hasn’t had a treatment for over 2 weeks now. Hooray!

Please be praying for this coming week. There will be lots of information to process, and of course, PET results week can always be incredibly emotional, stressful and tense. The anxiety and anticipation of what the results may say are really draining sometimes.